by แอ๊ด คาราบาว Add Carabao
Posted to the artist’s YouTube channel Add Carabao Lifestyle on September 12, 2020.

“Water depends on the boat; the tiger depends on the forest” is a nonobvious Thai proverb about being charitable in viewing reciprocal benefits. How does water depend on the boat? Well, according to two different sources, if a waterway or canal has a boat passing through it, it will be looked after and cleared of obstructions. Similarly, we can understand that the tiger depends on the forest, but conversely if there is a tiger in the forest, the forest will have a cycle [of life]. An blog post about this saying gives the example that if some child sees a bird riding on the back of a waterbuffalo, pecking it, and asks why the waterbuffalo puts up with this, the answer might be “The water depends on the boat; the tiger depends on the forest.”

The reference in this song to a “problem which we all know” is terribly vague, which makes me think it may refer to the “sensitive” subject of the monarchy”—which the student protests are now calling out and criticizing very, very, very specifically.

In the notes under the song, P’Add says [in Thai] the song was inspired by “Dr. Prawet Wasi’s article about the old and the new generation facing each other” and basically diverse groups trying to work things out in the current political crisis.

In Add Carabao’s give-dictatorship-a-chance song “นาวารัฐบุรุษ” Navy Statesman“) which came out immediately (just 2 or 3 days) after the 2014 coup (and sometime later was the last song on the album เห็นมั้ยบัวลอย “Hen Mai Bua Loi?”), there is the metaphor of the ship of state or the government, which the army takes over when the people start fighting. So I tend to view the boat in this song as the government. The article he mentions, seems to be very complimentary to the young people, so plugging the hole in the boat could very easily mean reforming the monarchy so it doesn’t interfere in politics (so the water and boat can live together), although in his notes P’Add only says that says plugging the hole means fixing whatever the problem may be.

น้ำพึ่งเรือเสือพึ่งป่าอาศัยกัน จึงอยู่ได้นมนานวัน โลกเราเป็นเช่นนั้นเอง
Waters depend on the boat; the tiger depends on the forest, they reside together; consequently they have lived together for so long. Our world is just like that.
เพลงไพเราะเพราะท่วงทำนองประสานกัน มีเนื้อหาที่ชวนฝันเติมพลังให้มวลชน
The song is beautiful because of the harmonies and has a message that invites dreams and renewed strength for the masses.
น้ำพึ่งเรือแต่เรือมันรั่วก็หมดกัน จมลงสู่ใต้บาดาล เพราะแรงโน้มถ่วงของโลก
Waters depend on the boat, but the boat is totally leaking. Sinking down to the netherworld because of the gravity of the world
เพลงชาติไทยมีแค่คนไทยที่ร้องกัน ธงไตรรงค์นั้นยืนยัน คนไทยเคยรักกัน
The Thai national song has only Thais singing it together. Reaffirm the three colored flag.* Thais used to all love each other..

*ความรัก ความสามัคคี คนไทยวันนี้ อาจเป็นแค่ความฝัน
Love and unity, [for] Thais today, maybe it’s just a dream
ปัญหาอย่างที่รู้ๆ กัน แค่เอาปูนยางชัน ไปอุดรูเรือรั่ว
[About the] problem, which we all know [what it is], just take rubber cement and fill the hole in the leaking boat

**น้ำพึ่งเรือเสือพึ่งป่าอาศัยกัน จะอยู่ได้นมนานวัน คนไทยต้องสามัคคี
Waters depends on the boat; the tiger depends on the forest. They live in mutual reliance. [If they are] to be together for a long, long time, the Thai people must unite
น้ำพึ่งเรือเสือพึ่งป่าอาศัยกัน จะอยู่ได้ไปนานๆ รักกันนะประเทศไทย
Waters depends on the boat; the tiger depends on the forest. They live in mutual reliance

Repeat (* / **)

น้ำพึ่งเรือเสือพึ่งป่าอาศัยกัน จะอยู่ได้นมนานวัน คนไทยต้องสามัคคี
Waters depend on the boat; the tiger depends on the forest. They live in mutual reliance. [If they are] to be together for a long long time, thai people must unite
น้ำพึ่งเรือเสือพึ่งป่าอาศัยกัน จะอยู่ได้เป็นนิรันดร์ ต้องช่วยกันอุดรูเรือรั่ว
Waters depend on the boat; the tiger depends on the forest, they live in mutual reliance. It can be this way forever. [We] must help each other plug the hole of the leaking ship

*The three colors represent the land + people, religion, and monarchy]